


The End of Childhood

by AllisonNoir



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:21:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27248716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllisonNoir/pseuds/AllisonNoir
Summary: The Bennetts are on to move to an other city and leaving Burgess behind. Jamie's saying goodbye (hopefully not forever) to the Guardians.(Yeah, literally, that all summerizes the whole. I'm poor at summing up things. It plays nearly after the movie's plot.)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	The End of Childhood

**Author's Note:**

> To the margin of "Did you study for the international politics exam?" "Nah, I've (a day before it) rather felt the urge to write a short fic.".

Jamie tightly hugged the spirit and just after the new Guardian’s skin started to feel warmer under the hold then it usually used to be, let Jack go.

“Sorry” he mumbled guiltily. After all Jack was the spirit of the winter season, he naturally shouldn’t have been sloppy like a puddle at the beginning of spring - Jamie realised.

“It’s okay, buddy” Jack smiled back and behaved like it would have been nothing that his upper was now as watery as snow after melting. The blue material became darker and soggy by Jamie’s tears, and partly because the kid had held him so tight that Jack's body slowly started to take over by the boy’s body and heated him up.

It took a few seconds for the blobby watermarks to freeze back again and the frost to reappear on the bright hooded pullover to the original state. It then gave the impression like the previous moment would have never happened, like Jamie would have never hugged him and clung on him refusing to say goodbye. It was sad. Maybe Tooth felt the same, because suddenly she flew to the child and literally jumped to the kid’s shoulders to clasp him.

“I hope you lose some tooth soon and we’ll meet again!” she wished.

Unbelievably Sandy was shaking his head behind them triggering his glams tinkling like the elf's jingles. North just laughed harshly on the fairy’s eagerness. Tooth realising what she just said blushed and embarrassedly flew away. She hardly managed to behave properly when it was about her feelings- maybe that was reason why she avoided children, she could be very addicted to them. Or maybe that was the reason why she behaved weirdly because she avoided them for a such a time? Tooth sometimes could wandering about which was the case in real.

Looking through the Guardians, if one had to confess who wasn’t unmanned, for the first glimpse only Bunny could seem normal. But the kangaroo-sized spirit was also affected; he was much quieter than he used to be. He didn’t say any word since Jamie appeared. Jack would have liked to mock him for that, standing like a child in shock, but he felt it wasn’t the right occasion to play with Bunny’s nerves.

“All right” Jack said then, and it was high time too to let the boy go. And on the other hand it started to darken. He didn’t want Jamie to get into trouble because of them. It wasn’t necessary to meet with the Guardians, but the kid was persistent to say goodbye to everyone before the morning, and they couldn’t debate to miss the last chance with him either. It was technically just a made-up farewell sith they would meet on each holiday – but after all it wouldn’t be the same any more.

North’s laughing slowly died away and after that without the sound of the well-known haw-haw in the background, they all remained quiet and silence ensued. For a moment it felt like a frozen moment in time to the margin of the together-survived little adventure, a last memoir before everything would change. Jack could swear that he was feeling his fingers tingling in cold, even if that was impossible. It was like feeling fear, but he had to remind himself it wasn’t Pitch's affect now, it was just saying goodbye to a loved one. He squeezed the grab on his staff and took a deep breath before he stepped closer to the boy.

“Jamie…” he started, but North put his hand on his shoulder.

“He should go before his parents start to worry.” pointed the tall spirit. Jack wanted to say something, but upon the whole, the oldest Guardian was right. He could lengthen the farewell for all eternity but at the end, once it had to happen. Jack had so many things to say but momentarily his mind was empty, nothing but void. He was worried he would miss the chance telling everything what he felt if he couldn’t now say anything, but then Jack looked to Sandy who with a slight wag noted the time. Jamie gazed to them as Jack breathed a sigh resignedly.

North, Bunny and Tooth all guaranteed that they would meet – Sandy didn’t have to – but Jack wondered if he could make any of those promises. All other Guardians have red letter days, but what was about him? Surely he would be in every snowfall, behind every built snowman, and in every snow-battle but would Jamie know that it would be him? Jack would have liked to know if the boy would know – but it sounded like he would have liked to ask a promise from the child, and he couldn’t – shouldn’t – ask for that. That sounded selfish. As a Guardian now his mission was every child way above just Jamie, though, even the Man in Moon had to understand Jamie was special. That was why this farewell was really hard for Jack and to form the right last words for the boy what he would have deserved for the many things what Jamie meant for him.

“I—” started the winter spirit, but a sudden movement silenced him, Jamie was squeezing him hard.

“I will never forget you, Jack, I promise.” said the boy, and as Jack could gasp after the surprise, he embraced the child back too.

\- - -

Slowly the packed car reversed out from the garage. Jack was crouching on a near tree’s thicker branch, holding his staff in his hand. He was invisible for the boy in the back seat, but he felt he had to be here. The spirit made the promise for himself he would let Jamie alone for a while to get friends there and as the first cold would come he would visit the boy.

Jamie was his first friend and albeit he didn’t know much about being a Guardian yet, he felt he had to let Jamie go with time too. Jack maybe would be there as the boy would grow up, but currently he refused to think about what would happen later. Now Jack was just following the way of the car, turning to the street and taking the road outside his vision.

The Wind took a round around him, like a blanket or a mischievous whispering and then as Jack slightly moved the staff in his hand; she carried a little frostbite straight to the car, merging into a little flake on the right back window. 

“It was nice from you.” Tooth flew to him and took a place next to him followed by some jingles. Jack started to understand Sandy’s signs, the dream-spirit agreed too.

“I couldn’t say goodbye yesterday properly.” Jack confessed.

“I think either of us could.” she ensured in a low voice. Jack knew she was thinking about her “Jamie”. He suddenly would have liked to know everything, but Tooth didn’t seem as she was now willing to speak about it and after all, they had time ahead of them. Speaking of time, Jack was clearly hearing some rhythmical stamping from under them.

“I think we should go.” Tooth pointed. Sandy sleepily rolled his eyes but fluttered to the ground. Jack smiled as the Wind came back and playfully was taking rounds around him.

“All right, buddy.” he reared himself up, took down his hoodie and jumped down the tree just to join the others at the trunk – much for his surprise they all came and he didn’t even have a surmise about it! Before he could be overcome by them, Jack's mouth curled into a smile and raised the staff behind his shoulder.

“What’s up, Kangaroo, deadlines ahead, only three-hundred and a bunch of days left, huh? It’s like a rush.” he teased the other Guardian. Seemingly Bunny was on to retort but then closed his mouth and North took the word.

“Bunny says we should talk about the necessities to be Guardian.”

“Yeah, like manners, above all.” noted the furry spirit.

“Nuance detail.” Jack was stepping slowly between them, balancing absently, but on the other hand he was eagerly waiting for the details. “It’s not my problem you don’t like my face.” he added funnily, but as North crossed his hands, Jack rolled his eyes and made himself behave as his new role exacted. “What necessities?”

Sandy in a rush summarised the whole in a mix of alternating glams, but luckily North stopped him by taking his hand on the chubby spirit’s shoulder, before anyone could lose mind trying to keep track with the flashes.

“What Sandy wants to say, we discussed yesterday what we have but you not yet.” Jack glanced to Bunny, who seemingly enjoyed the twoness of the voiced sentence. It sounded like a “well, Jack, it was nice to flatter you being a Guardian, but let’s face it you are not like us, it was a stupid idea even at the beginning”. But before Jack could have wondered about if really that was the situation, Bunny smiled and corrected the tall spirit.

“North means all of us have places and as a Guardian now you deserve one on your own too.”

“And a Globe.” Tooth translated Sandy's signs right away.

Jack stopped his wandering and turned to them. “Like North's Workshop?” the excitement was clearly soundable from his voice.

“Nothing could come up to the Workshop.” North cleared with played seriousness.

“Speak for yourself.” started Bunny again the obviously centuries old discussion, and soon the reasoning became a mass of murmuring as Tooth and then Sandy too joined the two deciding whose place was the mightest.

“All right…” Jack moaned tiredly giving up to stop the endless fight. It would take a while, he felt and rather looked up to the sky. The Moon was invisible, but Jack felt Manny - as North called the Man in Moon - was watching him, silently welcoming the new Guardian. Jack smiled back at him and thanked for everything. He was all agog to experience what the next centuries would hold for him as Guardian now.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> During the first drafting it run under the title 'Goodbye', but I felt the current version would be much more sophisticated - after all I should have learned for my exam so I should be sophisticated... - and on the other hand 'The End of Childhood' suggests that it's not just only about saying goodbye, it's also about slowly growning up and letting things go and for Jack too, a farewell for his earlier self and growing up to be a Guardian. (...wow, how wise could I be, okay, I ruined the moment, but with that cue, I really should at least now start studying)


End file.
